Empire of Cold

Oct 23 2019

We were taught that cold

was not a thing

but rather the absence of heat.

But how, then

when the guests crowd in

to the foyer's welcoming glow,

stamping the snow

off salt-stained boots,

and with a momentary shiver
slipping arms
from heavy winter coats,

to explain the crisp clean cold

pouring off their clothes?

The astringency and weight

of arctic air,

its slightly menacing feel

in the bright interior warmth?

I feel a momentary chill

greeting them there,

grateful for the fire

blazing in its hearth.

Outside, on a moonless night

my chimney is puffing exhaust,

black smoke and ash

with gusts of firefly sparks

and clouds of swirling cinders,

working hard

to hold winter at bay;

the empire of cold

that has overtaken the world

no matter how certainly the physicists declaim

there is no such thing.